A conspiratorial, character-driven, and fantastically creative tale of high-end liquor and outlandish melodrama.
A satirical yarn traces the roots of a secret society monitoring and fiercely protecting the sanctity of alcoholic beverages.
At the core of Moser’s (T-Bull and the Lost Men, 2013) novel is a determined coalition of do-gooders self-charged with fighting the “unremitting evil in the marketplace of potable alcohol.” Calling itself the Flavor League, the 14-member consortium, founded to “bring justice to the murky, sleazy, down-and-dirty world of wine and spirits,” seeks to right the wrongs committed by wealthy and powerful entities seeking to control alcohol consumption and its social sophistication. The book provides a fictional history of the league’s inception in the 1980s and its development as a progressive entity through the activity of two integral members who met in 1987: San Franciscan wine tasters Margot Sipski and Brewster Hotte, the latter being the group’s divorced, oddball, freelance-writing 14th member. Margot is busy with an escalating career as a wine authority while Brewster, son of a dead vodka magnate, pines for her attention even with a tarnished reputation. The league emerges as a formidable presence in the libation landscape, primarily since operatives use a secret, long-acting powdered weapon called “MLII,” which strips targets of their ability to taste and smell, rendering them useless in the liquor marketplace. Befitting his two eccentric protagonists, Moser’s tone is comical and plucky, moving swiftly through the pair’s adventures. But in the author’s cleverly imaginative, semifuturistic world of spirits being exploited for sheer avarice, banks hiring senior astrologers, and vodka becoming the currency of kings, nefarious business practices are bound to churn. The stakes increase in this unconventional story when Brewster hears of his brother Jock’s new product line marketing things like a watered-down alcoholic beverage aimed at minors and children: “the ones who dream of having a drink.” The league knows Jock’s business is a prime candidate for MLII but hesitates to act. Still, Brewster and Margot employ an aggressive plot to stop Jock’s genetically modified vodka production project as other groups, like Univod, a powerful, politically connected vodka establishment, also come into the league’s cross hairs. Bartenders and sommeliers may particularly get a kick out of the frothy “alcoholic coup” bubbling at the droll novel’s climax; others might enjoy this lightweight entertainment with a stiff drink and an open mind.
A conspiratorial, character-driven, and fantastically creative tale of high-end liquor and outlandish melodrama.Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9847941-4-0
Page Count: -
Publisher: Venial Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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